428 New Tango Recordings
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 22:46:05 -0500
From: Keith Elshaw <keith@TOTANGO.NET>
Subject: New Tango Recordings
In every hour, I carefully balance the dancing experience; old vs new; vocal
vs instrumental; reflective vs joyous; etc.
For years, I had to shy away from newer recordings. So now for me, it's
almost as if the flood-gates have opened.
Without getting into a long list, some favourite newer recordings:
ORQUESTA ESCUELA de TANGO - Emilio Balcarce is showing still his genius with
the direction of this group.
Born on February 22, 1920, he is famous for his violin playing, compositions
(La Bordona, Norteño) and his wonderful arrangements for Pugliese. (He also
made some great recordings with Alberto Castillo in the older era).
To me, his new recordings with the ESCUELA are the best new discs out. The
sound is rich but not artificial. The arrangements have dancers in mind. The
playing is top-notch. They didn't let it get away from them in the studio.
ORQUESTA EL ARRANQUE - Beautiful; exciting. Again, the sound environment is
not over-done in the studio and the arrangements are for dancing, not stage
performance (although fine for that too).
NUEVO QUINTETO REAL - There are two neat aspects to this rejuvenation. One:
Nestor Marconi has been roped-back into playing tango tango. Two: Horacio
Salgán's recordings are now sonically rich and with breathing as for dancers
(the old recordings were too compressed and brittle).
Nestor is also recording his jazzier style as Nestor Marconi Trio - for
those who like nuevo tango.
PATIO de TANGO - This is a fine quartet with vocals by Lidia Borda.
PAS A DEUX - I haven't heard much from this Paris group, but what I have is
lovely (nuevo) and I am looking forward to hearing more.
JUAN JOSE MOSALINI ET SON GRAND ORCHESTRE de TANGO - treads the fine lines
nicely.
I am thrilled to say there are more. And more all the time.
A reference page (one man's views only, so it doesn't pretend to be
complete) is at https://ToTANGO.net/contemp.html.
If Juan Cedrón is listening ... please stop singing. Your recordings
otherwise are great. I mean no disrespect. I just think someone should tell
you the truth. You are missing out on exposure - and giving people the
pleasure of dancing to your music - only because of your vocal tracks.
Anyone who likes your singing now has enough for a while. We want more
instrumentals, por favor.
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 12:11:05 -0000
From: Mike Lavocah <mikelavocah@FREENETNAME.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: New Tango Recordings
Recently I bought all the available CDs of the Nuevo Quinteto Real, and also
the only available CD of the original Quinteto Real, a double album just
released by Sony on Columbia. The NQR are very good, but the QR, with Pedro
Laurenz on bandoneon and Enrique Francini on violin (remember them?), just
leave the NQR for dead. There are so many musical ideas that you don't have
time to digest one before the next one arrives - and they keep this up for
100 minutes. The interpretations have much more energy than the NQR and are
much better to dance to.
These are 1960s recordings and there are no fidelity issues whatsoever.
Everyone I have played this to has wanted to sit and listen to the entire
album, and playing their recording of La Puqalada at a milonga produced a
spontaneous round of applause from the (British) dancers. (We don't do that
sort of thing very often).
New tango music is improving rapidly at the moment but it still has some way
to go before it reaches the levels of recordings like these.
Saludos!
Mike Lavocah
mailto:mike@milonga.co.uk
https://www.milonga.co.uk/
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 13:41:16 +0100
From: Chris Luethen <christian.luethen@GMX.NET>
Subject: Re: New Tango Recordings
Just my 1/50 of an Euro ...
On 18 Feb 02, at 22:46, Keith Elshaw wrote:
> ORQUESTA ESCUELA de TANGO - [...]
Aren't the musicians of El ARRANQUE also involved in the Tango
(musicians) school Orquesta Escuele derived from? Esp. Ignacio
Varchausky [double bass of El A.] and Ramiro Gallo [first violin of
El. A.].
> ORQUESTA EL ARRANQUE - Beautiful; exciting. Again, the sound
> environment is not over-done in the studio and the arrangements are
> for dancing, not stage performance (although fine for that too).
Here in Europe, back in summer of 1998, we were happy to have
EL ARRANQUE on their first european tour - before the official
release of their first CD back in Argentina we allready had it. One of
their four concerts (on that tour) happend to be in Dresden,
Germany, where I first met those young and very talented
musicians. Young, fresh and accentuated powerful Tango - just
perfect for dancing. Young, but on the roots of the old maestros, as
the musicans of El A. keep very close contact to those "oldies"
still alive. Nely Omar really supports the boys. "El Arranque"
brought out their second CD in the meantime ['Cabulero'], which is
fine dancing stuff as well but also served as the music for a tango
show ["Tango Tango de Buenos Aires"] which toured the
Netherlands in early 2001. [The prerelease CD also featured a video
of "El Arranque", don't know whether it is also on the final release.]
Concerning young musicians:
Theirs actually a line from Berlin ["Tango Rela Quartett"] to Buenos
Aires ["El Arranque"] to Dresden ["Sextetto Andorinha"]: Peter
Reil, Bandoneonist at former "Tango Real Sextett" got stuck in
Buenos Aires while on their first Argentinian Tour a couple of years
ago. Later became member of the evolving "El Arranque", but then
returning to Europe to join "Tango Andorinha Sextett" of Dresden.
[Later Peter left Dresden to play with "Sextetto Canyengue" at the
end of 2000.]
So after looking at "El Arranque" [https://www.elarranque.com.ar/]
why not check out some fine young european Tango: "Tango Real"
of Berlin [https://www.tangoreal.de/] and "Tango Andorinha" of
Dresden [https://www.andorinha.de/].
Enjoy dancing - esp. to live music!
Christian
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 11:40:00 -0500
From: Tanguero Chino <tanguerochino@NETSCAPE.NET>
Subject: Re: New Tango Recordings
Dear List,
A new double CD released by Milan / BMG contains works by almost all the groups mentioned by Keith, plus others. The CD is simply titled "Buenos Aires Tango". I believe that it is available from Amazon, and probably from your regular music stores.
I came across this CD quite by accident. A local record store chain is closing its doors and is selling off its inventory. I bought a whole bunch of Tango CDs, knowing that it will be a hit and miss game. Scratchy sound from the older recordings, and non-danceable music from the newer groups.
Some of the pieces from "Buenos Aires Tango" falls into the "not suitable for milonga" catagory. However, they are of very high quality and are good for listening. There are also enough danceable pieces on it to make it worth its price. A warning: this is a compilation CD and is great for those who want a sampling of more contemporary recordings. Check the song listings if you already own some CDs by the groups included.
Another gem, The Story of Tango Vol. 6 - Ernesto Franco & Quique Lannoo. Ernesto had played a long time with D'Arienzo. Quique had played with many orchestras, including those of Troilo and Pugliese. A review is already on the Amazon site.
Two CDs to avoid - Marcelo Alvarez sings Gardel, and Mala Junta by Pedro Maffia & Pedro Laurenz (El Bandoneon 98). Marcelo Alvarez is an opera singer. Although he is Argentinian, he did not overcome the "handicap" of his operatic training. Out of the 19 songs in Mala Junta, only 5 have acceptable fidelity (those by Pedro Laurenz and his Orchestra). The others sound so bad I always end up skipping them.
To me, Sera Una Noche (Santiago Vazquez) is a CD of "contemporary music" with tango roots. Definitely not for the milonga. I am mentioning it here only because I really like its version of Quejas de Bandoneon. It is labelled as a milonga and has flute and guitar as the main instruments. However, it has parts that is more tango than milonga. If any DJ on the list finds an occasion to use it at a milonga, I'd like to hear about the reaction of the dancers.
I've ramble on too much. Mil disculpas y un abrazo.
Tanguero Chino
Disclaimer: I do not work for Amazon.
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